A virgule is a slash mark, /, used in slashfanfiction between character names, and giving a name to the entire genre.

History

Virgule, the convention, was a Seattle slash con held in 1992[1], 1994 [2], and 1996[3]; It was run during the even years to prevent a conflict with Zebracon, which was held during the odd years. The concom was headed by Deejay and staffed by a bunch of other Seattle-area fans. It was advertised as a do-it-yourself con:

"VIRGULE, the Con: Third Time's the Charm: October 11-13, 1996.... Seattle—the jewel of the Pacific Northwest (and an afternoon's drive from Vancouver B.C., filming home of Highlander and X-Files)—fandom invites you to Virgule. We promise all the standard slash con treats and fancies, plus some new ones: Friday night Pizza Party; Hands-on Writing track; Duping & Video room; Zine Reading room. The hotel is cheap.... friendly (we've been there for years), and right next to the airport (free airport shuttle, of course). The function space includes a big consuite, extra rooms for gang TV watching for Friday night, an extra consuite for smokers, 2 panel tracks and more.

The Virgule Contapes

Contapes, once a standard way for distributing vids to interested fans, were also fading as more and more vidders (influenced, no doubt, by Deejay herself) were publishing their own collections and so withheld their permission to put copies of their premier vids on the con tapes. (Vid quality degraded for VCR vids depending on how frequently the tape was played and how many generations from the original source tape the current copy was.) By Virgule 3 in 1996, the con vid tape was published as "Virgule 1996 Orphan Vid Tape" with 18 vids by only three vidders (not including collaborators): Carol S., Wendy, and Morgan Dawn. About 2/3 of the vids on the tape were shown in the Virgule 3 vid show. The rest were 'bonus vids' such as "Send the Marines" which also appeared on the Media Cannibals/Tape2

VIRGULE, the Con: Third Time's the Charm: October 11-13. 1996 at the Quality Inn, Sea-Tac, Seattle, Washington. Seattle—the jewel of the Pacific Northwest (and an afternoon's drive from Vancouver B.C., filming home of Highlander and XFiles)—fandom invites you to Virgule. We promise all the standard slash con treats and fancies, plus some new ones: Friday night Pizza Party; Hands-on Writing track; Duping & Video room; Zine Reading room. The hotel is cheap ($68 a night for up to 4 people), friendly (we've been there for years), and right next to the airport (free airport shuttle, of course). The function space includes a big consuite, extra rooms for gang TV watching for Friday night, an extra consuite for smokers, 2 panel tracks and more. $40 attending membership, or $50 for a membership and dealer's table. Checks to Rainy Daze Productions."

Vid Show Review

In April 1995, Carol S. posted the following review of the Virgule vid show tape to the Virgule-L mailing list. It is reposted here with permission.

"In the Air Tonight" (ST/B7) by T'Rhys-- I enjoyed this crossover a lot, despite the fact that dreams still out-strip the capacities of affordable technology. I'm looking forward to what else T'Rhys and others so with computer editing.

"Living on the Edge of the Night" (FK) by Cybel Harper -- OK, but not terribly exciting. The song works well with the show and the clips were clear even though I'm only vaguely familiar with the show. I wish that the edits had been faster or the angles more interesting.

"I'm Not Madre of Steel" (Pros) by Cybel Harper -- Too static and too heavy a reliance upon knowledge of the show for it to be very interesting. With a few exceptions, song vids are anarative art and in this case the narration wasn't clear enough.

"Hero Takes a Fall"(B7) by Cybel Harper -- Song doesn't feel like B7, despite lyrics, and the visual pacing was much too slow for such a fast paced song.

"Something to Talk About"(WG) by Charlotte Hill & Sandy Hereld-- A very tight video. Good song, good clip choices. The story is very clearly told.

"You're My Best Friend" (Pros) by Sandy Hereld and Alex MacKenzie-- Good song, good editing. I would have liked a few more shots of the two of them just being friends.

"Just another Day" (MV) by Kandy Fong -- one of two vids on this tape to use this song for MV, and I'm still not sure why it was chosen. In both cases knowing the show better than I would help a lot. Of the two vids this is the weaker, the shots are longer, c/c rarely appear in the same shot and it is more static (something that I didn't realize was possible in a MV vid).

"Something to Talk About" (Pros) by Media Cannibals-- This is a great slash song. The pros version is lots of fun, but isn't quite as tight as the WG version (the second verse is weaker).

"Heard it Through the Grapevine" (Pros/B7/WG) by Media Cannibals-- Fun parrallel construction. I was particularly amused by the choices of "the man you knew before". Good editing and clip choice for the most part my only problem is that the transitions between fandoms were rather abrupt,

"Can't Keep a Good Man Down" (WG) by Sandy Hereld and Rache -- Excellent Sonny vid, both music and visuals capture Sonny to a T."

Friday: Erszebet and I got a ride out to the hotel with Agnes, a wonderfully nice chauffeur. Being a Seattle Slut, I didn't feel like staying at the con hotel; unfortunately, the con hotel was out by the airport some ways away, like, 20-30 minutes via hellish freeways and/or other roads that shouldn't exist but do. My advice on commuting to a con: unless it's less than a mile away, don't.

We got there. Made a stop at the dealer's room to drop off zines to sell, then ran up to the art show to dump some drawings off, then back to the dealer's room to see if I'd missed anything good in the meantime. Nope. I think the only new zines were multimedia and/or Quantum Leap, but I'm not sure, since I only
had eyes for Pros. Small number of dealers, not many zines, only one box of C and D-grade circuit stories, and some photos. I bought a lot of photos.

Got back to the Media Cannibals table to find the pile of zines I'd left more or less depleted - Deathless Pros Press did quite well. I spent most of my time sitting behind the table, and enjoyed meeting fans, and got to listen to comments/opinions up close and personal. I especially enjoyed hiding my badge, so that people would start talking about "Tea for Two" before realizing they were talking to the author - a wonderful way to
get honest comments. Sneaky, but fun.

At 2:00, Blakbird and Feochadn and I made our way to the panel we were doing on fan art. One person turned up - Jane Mailander. So we spent the time chatting about stuff vaguely related to fan art, and stuff that wasn't vaguely related to fan art, and then we stopped. Best panel I've ever been on. Well, it's the only
panel I've ever been on.

There may have been some other, more interesting panels going on that day, but I try to avoid panels as much as humanly possible, so I don't know for sure. The other panels on Friday and why I skipped them were:

"Highlander/Forever Knight - the Immortals" I've seen "Highlander" twice, once against my will and once by accident. Sorry. I've never seen "Forever Knight". I saw a music video to it once. Does that count?

"The Professionals" Yeah, I skipped this panel, too. It was at 5:00pm and I was hungry.

As you can tell, I am not a very good con panel attendee.

Anyway, we left fairly early on Friday and returned on Saturday, and I can't remember whether this was the day I got to ride in the back of Feochadn's pickup truck, or if that was Sunday, but in either case, the ride in the back of Feochadn's pickup truck was quite entertaining, as I lay flat on my back the whole way in order to
avoid blocking her view, and had a very good time trying to figure out what the various swerves and honking portions of the ride were all about. I highly recommend this mode of transportation.

On Saturday I somehow managed to walk in to the end of a panel called "The Chartreuse Horseshoes Awards", which involved nominating zines and stories etc for "worst this" and "worst that" and giving the winners Twinkies. I was sorely tempted to nominate something of my own just to get a Twinkie, as I hadn't eaten a Twinkie in years and was feeling nostalgic. But I refrained. The one nominee I remember was for the editor, name now forgotten, who printed a MUNCLE story in which Nappy is, I believe, down a manhole, and Illya is up above, peering down at him. Except that said editor left the "r" out of "peering".

I dunno, if I were Illya, I'd let loose on Nappy any day of the week. I mean, Illya does all the work, while Nappy just stands around ogling females and screwing things up. I should know, I've watched a lot of MUNCLE lately.

Ahem. Back to the dealer's room, where I bought more photos and a copy of "Lovers 5" (Chained To The Typewriter Press), and had a lovely time chatting with people again, and especially enjoyed meeting and talking with Kathy S. and Ellis Ward. Or was that Sunday? Anyway, it was fun.

I skipped the panel on "Grievous Bodily Harm", because it said they were going to talk about DEATH stories. Then I skipped the "Nurses' Panel", because Agnes lives here and I can just call her up anytime. Then I skipped the "Wiseguy" panel, because it's Wiseguy. Next, I skipped the "Bring on the Sidekicks" panel - they were planning to talk about people like *Murphy*. And then I missed the panel on "Political Correctness", because I was offended by the panel title. After that, I skipped the "Babylon Five" panel, since I've never seen that show, either, and don't harbor any lingering desire to rectify the matter. And finally, I actually ATTENDED the last panel of the day (I think someone drugged my decaf mocha), the one in which "*Real* Gay and Bi Men Tell All."

Well, I was hoping for some nitty-gritty "which AI position do you like best and why" type questions, but what we got instead was Son of the Politically Correct panel, with a load of boring stuff like "how come people aren't using condoms these days" and "men aren't good at intimacy" and "how I came out"... I knew it was going to be bad when one of the panelists said something like, "and we're here to help you write about gay men." They were nice guys, but they weren't talking about slash, and they weren't even talking much about sex. Oh, well. So it goes.

I think I went out to eat again at some point. There is, by the way, a very good Thai restaurant about ten blocks from the hotel called the Bai Tong. Excellent food, though they don't seem terribly familiar with their own wine list. Still, a much better dining experience than the nearest restaurant to the con hotel: Denny's. Which I ate at one too many times.

Art show: I went to it! Three or four times, in fact. Kept hoping something new would turn up if I kept going often enough, but alas, nothing did. Most of it looked like recycled stuff from previous cons, and I think the only new prints Suzan Lovett sent were all Wiseguy, which were less than impressive. Did get some nice comments on the stuff I'd put in, most of which was not for sale due to laziness (i.e., didn't get around to getting prints made, so just showed the originals). I thought Karen River's stuff was the best in the show - I've always liked her work. And Jean Kluge had some very nice pieces.

Saturday evening was the Music Videos contest - Media Cannibals had their usual good stuff in there (I'm not biased or anything here), the rest was so-so, but then, I always sit in the last row to avoid seeing whenever possible, as watching mediocre songvids gives me indigestion. I did watch the Pros vids and liked "You Don't Love Me Anymore" (a Weird Al tune), which was NOT Media Cannibals. I even liked a couple of non-Pros vids (!) - "Can't Keep A Good Man Down" (Wiseguy), the perfect Sonny song, and "Promises" (Tris/Alex), both exceptionally well-made.

Sunday...um, I skipped a bunch more panels, including "Wild, Wild West" (aiieee!), "Porn vs. Slash" (sounds like an old slashfen thread to me), "Fandom on the Internet" (been there, done that), "Can Slash Improve Your Marriage/Relationship?" (improve my what?), and I skipped the closing ceremonies, too. I DID go to the art auction, though I can't remember why. And I ate at Denny's again, with a whole slew of slash sluts, which made the Denny's dining experience a lot more palatable.

In summary: Spent most of the con in the dealer's room, behind the Media Cannibals table, meeting people and hanging out. That was the best part of the con, and in my opinion, the best part of any con. So for me, Virgule was a success.

Am looking forward to Escapade in February, where I plan to miss a bunch more panels. See you there!"

1996 Convention

1996 convention T-shirt with a fake 'slashy' tabloid

1996 Convention flyer

An IRC Chat For Non-Attending Fans

In 1996, the convention organizer announced the the Virgule-Lmailing list what may have been the first interactive and live IRC chat at a slash convention:

"Visit us online! Announcing...

Virtual Virgule!

In two separate formats, Virgule 3 will be "online" this year. Each day from 5 PM - 7 PM, Pacific Standard Time, we'll have open Internet Relay Chat. If you'd like to join in, go to the undernet, make contact, and join channel #virgule . (Be patient, we'll get there...!)

If a password is necessary (sometimes ya gotta use one to keep out the surfin' dweebs), use the word "slash" .

For those *AOL* users, we will be off and on our private chatroom, "virgule", all weekend, as well as an organized chat on Sunday between 1pm and 2pm. Try us from time to time, or e-mail us and let us know when you'd like to chat, or if you're having trouble locating us."

1996 Vid Show Contest Winners (partial)

on the back of the 1996 flyer was an ad for a pre-convention room party called "Solidus"

1996: A Series of Contemporaneous Con Reports

"I love fandom; I really do! I love talking over story ideas, and making fun of the continuity mistakes of my fav shows, and having my socks knocked off by new vids (Lynn, I'm still humming that song, seeing Methos walk off into the mist...) and whining about other fans, and discussing character motivation HOURS after we all should have been asleep. Despite a cold, and far too little sleep, I had a blast, mostly just talking/playing with other fans.

HL plays here 9pm Sunday night, so after a long, nearly sleepless con, those HL fans still at the hotel gathered together to watch the Richie episode. 5 minutes into the ep, I realized I was enjoying the episode more than any non-Methos episode in years, because I was watching it with other fans! (And fun, bitchy, witty fans, at that!) I loved spending every commercial hypothesizing about what each plot twist meant, and laughing at the plot/acting flaws, and wondering where Methos was (of course).

X-Files on Friday night was also much more fun than usual (and not just because Morgan and Wong are back, either), watching it in a gang environment. We also did gang-watching of the Nash Bridges episode, and I think the entire hotel heard the gasp/choke/laugh when William Russ introduced himself as Sonny. Funny if you're watching it at home alone: laugh-out-loud funny in a big group of friends!

Another high point of the con for me was Fannish Jeopardy. We did it as close as possible to the TV show (except we had Vanna to turn the questions over for us) including Rice-a-Roni as a parting gift. The game was a hoot, and our contestants did a wonderful job. We included an Audio category of many of our fannish heroes singing (Don Johnson, Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, *Martin* *Shaw*, and *Lewis* *Collins*), and for those of you who missed it, this web site has a couple of the worst offenders: http://www.loskene.com/singalong/kirk.html and other terrible examples as well.

I hope everyone else at the con had a good time (and for that matter, the slash fans at the HL Gathering--we want to hear the news, Sue!--and at Necromicon). If people weren't posting about Sentinel, it wasn't personal!"

In response to Sandy's convention report, Morgan Dawn offered a few observations of her own to the mailing list:

"This was a con full of impulsiveness for me. First, I impulsively attempted to persuade a fellow fan to moon the car following us on the field trip to the gun store (hey, the car was filled with weird women who kept screaming media characters names as they drove by). Luckily, buttons are hard to undo, so we got the thrill without the chills.

Then there was an impromptu 2 mile hike to a restaurant in the rain, only to discover they only did dinner, not lunch.

Next, I impulsively asked to have my name added to the Fannish Jeopardy list. I knew I was in trouble when they started pulling up "alternate jurors". It was clearly fixed. Most of the questions were mind boggling hard -- basically anything that wasn't: "Who were Bodie and Doyle" type had us all three stumped. My great moment of shame came when I persuaded Agnes to bet all she had on the daily double, only to see her forget the name of some Star Trek clone series that no one ever watches. I kept humming the theme song under my breath to her, and muttering the name, but to no avail. I, of course, could not remember the name of some minor character in Pros (McMuffin? Murphy?)

"My Report on the Con: Hey, I actually managed to have a pretty good time! The trick, I guess, is to go into these things with completely lowered expectations - that way, if anything good at all happens, the con will be wonderful. And lots of good things happened - first, in the gloating department, our vid ("A Fire Is Burning", Pros) won Best In Show (mine, Sandy's, and gwyneth's vid, that is), and all the Media Cannibals vids got a tremendous response - thank you! The Deathless Pros Press zines sold better than I expected, considering there was nothing new. And it's always fun to sit behind a dealer's table and meet the readers Up Close & Personal. Okay, end of gloating period. As for the feeding frenzy, well, I didn't buy anything except a couple photos, so I didn't go broke. Didn't see any new zines I wanted, but admittedly my tastes are highly restrictive. Other people seemed to be carting armloads'o'zines away, with happy gleams in their eyes.

The hospitality room kept providing me with Hostess cupcakes, rootbeer, and cheese & crackers. And one night, pizza. Yum. The Local Gang feted me on my birthday (the 11th) with a slashy and highly X-rated cake featuring Bodie & Doyle nekkid & sporting Trigger-size, very erect cocks (I want the negatives of those pictures, Lynn...) which was terribly cool. And I managed to cleverly avoid everyone I wanted to avoid and hang out with the people I wanted to hang out with. I even got in my daily exercise (hi, Morgan Dawn - next time, we'll *call* the restaurant first to see if it's open...).

I hear the panels were fairly entertaining; I, of course, avoided them all. The thing about panels is that they don't come with "Delete" keys. Pity. I did participate in one con function on Saturday, though - a field trip to a local gunsmithing shop, where we got to handle all sorts of fun tools, including an AK-47, which I found most invigorating. Made me ache for a firing range. Sigh. Charlotte Hill did a great job driving in alien territory in Jo's very cool car (cherry-red El Camino with a white, zebra-striped top) and handled the attempted mooning (by persons who shall remained unnamed) with a fairly restrained amount of shrieking. Fun field trip!

The Saturday evening entertainment was great - Fannish Jeopardy! Gwyneth made a wonderful Alex Trebek (when someone answered wrong, she said, "no, sorry, no" with perfect intonation), and because the board was hardly automatic (pieces of paper taped up with the dollar amounts, behind which were the questions), Tina got to be the Vanna of Jeopardy, ripping the paper down with aplomb and making lovely hand gestures. My fave categories were "Ignominious Ends" ("anyone who mispronounces 'ignominious' will get a 25-point deduction", declared gwyneth), which included Tommy's death in "Heroes" among other famous demises, "Third Bananas" (no one got the Murphy question! shocking), "Where Do I Know That Guy From" (fave guys in bit roles on other shows) and "Golden Throats", the audio category, for which Jo and Gwyneth had rounded up tapes of famous fandom actors doing the singing gig thing, starting with Shatner's famous vocals and ending with Lewis Collins' disco hit. Much hilarity accompanied the answers & questions. And the Rice-a-Roni was a great touch.

There were all of two artists in the art show - Lovett and Karen Eaton. Lovett did have a few Pros things I hadn't seen before (mostly from "Angel In the Dark"). Fortunately, there was something major that I didn't like in every single one of the new Lovetts, so I was safe from spending money there. Phew. I stayed home on Sunday to rest and recover and am glad I did. The con was great but a tad exhausting, and I always feel guilty if I leave the pooches to their own devices for a whole day and evening. They forgave me, though. Dogs are good about that."